


Happy In A Love Like This

by rethrin



Category: Franklin & Bash
Genre: Blow Jobs, Eavesdropping, Established Relationship, Headaches & Migraines, M/M, Open Relationships, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-22
Updated: 2012-06-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 22:56:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/471618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rethrin/pseuds/rethrin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared has a migraine, and Peter has some friends around.  Friends who get drunk and start talking about their past sexual exploits.  Jared hears some things he's not supposed to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy In A Love Like This

Jared was at the stage where he felt absolutely fine, so long as he didn't move. He was practically floating on top of all his meds, he could feel a gap opening between his headache and him, a beautiful buffer zone. But he needed a sip of water and the glass was empty. Peter would bring him one. Usually Peter would have done that while he was asleep. 

He waited for hours, which the clock said were only minutes, until eventually he remembered, college reunion with the guys. Peter was probably five clubs away by now, dancing, drinking and reminiscing. Good for him. 

Jared moaned, sad and low, and sat up slowly.

Soon as he opened his door it was clear Peter was not five clubs away, he and the other guys were out by the hot tub, the noise had just been easily blocked by the most excellent sound-proofing of the bedrooms, definitely one of the things Jared loved most about the cave. He stood still and contemplated the noise of six grown men who were apparently celebrating every sip with a clink of bottles, cheering every word any of them uttered, and roaring sometimes just for the love of roaring. He decided he could make it to the kitchen and back despite them. He held onto the wall and shuffled forwards, his head hanging. 

"Sandy Edwards, she was a backing singer for a local group, played the bar every Saturday night last year, and then stayed behind after lock up, she had..." 

Jared did his best to tune Jez out as he detailed every perfection of the beautiful - and apparently deeply talented - Ms Edwards. 

Nobody noticed him as he went over to the kitchen, and he was glad, he didn't want them to feel like they had to be quiet, and he didn't want to talk to anyone. He wanted water, and then to be magically horizontal again and quiet and preferably asleep. Simple aims.

"Okay, your turn."

"Yeah, Bashter, spill. Best blow job ever."

"The one you think about when you're on your own, only your hand for company."

Jared smiled. Trish Anderson, 2010, some motel out on route 73. Peter had gone out for beer, texted to say he'd got lucky, and then come back six hours later, a smile plastered to his face that didn't shift for about a month. And Jared had heard more details about those six hours than he really needed.

Deep down Peter had probably had blow jobs he enjoyed more. When it was just the two of them, Peter would talk more about Janie than he did in groups. And often there was a kind of pause when guys were talking like this, when Peter would think about Janie and then pick someone else instead. He'd go with Trish. 

"Okay, yeah," Peter sounded thoughtful, and only gently drunk. He paused right on cue, then took a decisive breath. "Parking garage of a Bruce Springsteen gig, 2002." 

Jared froze, reaching for a glass. 

There were a few jeers about Peter's musical tastes, and then the necessary demands for details.

"We barely made it to the car. We'd been dancing really close in the concert, so I figured I was getting lucky, but the minute I opened the car door she gave me this look, and I knew we weren't waiting. Did it right there, I was sitting in the back seat, she was kneeling on the ground. We were in the dark, in a corner, but there were all these people, pure luck we didn't get seen. And she kept me there for . . fuck knows, but felt like hours, and her mouth, man..."

Jared's cheeks were burning, breathing forgotten. Peter wasn't even stumbling: she, her. But Peter had only been to one Bruce Springsteen gig that year, and it hadn't been a girl on her knees in front of him in that parking garage. 

Peter's fingers in his hair, Jared could still hear him moaning, begging, trying to keep quiet, trying to pull him forwards, calling him every name under the sun every time he laughed and pulled away, teasing him. Peter was filthy mouthed when he was past thinking, when Jared got him there. So yeah, thinking about it, it had been good, some of Jared's finest work maybe. But since when did Peter start remembering stuff like that, never mind telling their fucking friends about it, telling anyone. Fuck.

Jared's head was swimming, the guys were asking for a name and Peter didn't even hesitate, Jeri apparently. Peter said she was small, cute, this smile that made you feel like the only person in the world, short hair, felt so good under his fingers... and Jared carefully took a glass out of the cupboard, filled it with water, tried to ignore the sound of Peter describing how fucking hot his fucking mouth was to their fucking friends. 

"...kind of mouth you just want to fuck forever, you know?"

"Dude, what sort of slut gets on her knees in a fucking parking lot?"

Jared's mouth fell open, he nearly dropped his glass. He took a deep breath. That was Stuart, and he didn't mean a thing by it, he said it meaning Peter was lucky, that's all. 

"There were two of us there, Stu," Peter said lightly.

"Uh huh, but only one of you was on her knees. You want to pass us her number? I'd show her a good time."

"Maybe we should get her over here, a girl who'll do that to you in public sounds like she likes to party, we could-"

Everything inside Jared paused, blanked out at the sheer wrongness. 

"No!" The wrongness had clearly not been lost on Peter. "Um, we didn't keep in touch." 

"Oh, you were paying her!" 

"What?" 

"No need to be ashamed, I'm sure lots of guys got their best bj's in the back seat of a car, for a quick twenty bucks, maybe you could point us to where you picked her up we'd be happy to pay, maybe we could sample her other talents..."

"No. _No._ She wasn't..." But Peter's denials were lost as Max pondered how much you'd have to pay a hooker to go to a Springsteen gig with you.

Jared stood very still and felt sick and felt furious and felt weird. If it hadn't been for the pain he might so easily have stormed out there to set the record straight, demand that Peter defend his honour. Because he wasn't a whore, and there wasn't anything slutty about wanting to suck Peter off, not when he'd been fucking teasing you all night, hands everywhere.

But Jared's head hurt. His bones hurt. He took a long drink of water. He was not dealing with this now, he'd ignore it, forget it, maybe think about it some other time, post-migraine, when his head stopped trying to turn inside out, and his eyes weren't so heavy and burning in their sockets. 

Conversation moved on to one of the other guys, and Jared calmly headed back to bed. Which went well until half way there the guys outside let out a massive cheer for something, and it pierced Jared's skull, he flinched, felt fire in his head, darkness behind his eyes. 

Peter was there before he even noticed he'd dropped his water, glass everywhere. Peter's hand on the small of his back, holding him steady, and Jared leaned pathetically into his shoulder without a thought, let him half carry him back to his room. Peter didn't talk, and Jared carefully avoided all eye contact, which was easy, his eyes hurt, even in the dark of the bedroom. Peter moved him gently, quietly. He put him to bed, fetched him more water, gave him a small army of pills.

He stroked his fingers through Jared's hair and whispered an apology for the noise, offered to send everyone away, but Jared waved his hand, Peter should just go and enjoy. Peter kissed his forehead, which made Jared smile despite himself. Peter didn't usually kiss him, not if they weren't doing anything else, but Peter was drunk, and... Jared didn't want to question it too deeply because he was fairly sure Peter was kissing him because just a few minutes ago he'd been thinking about fucking Jared's mouth, and Jared didn't need to be thinking about Peter thinking about fucking his mouth. 

Pretty quickly he felt the meds starting to grow inside him, and he didn't need to think at all, didn't need to move or think or anything, would just lie here and let it make sense tomorrow. 

****

**\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -**

  
Jared woke up early. Peter was on the other side of the bed, one of his arms was thrown wide, his fingers nearly touching Jared's arm. Jared stretched a little, feeling better, reveling in feeling better. Peter was asleep, breathing noisily, not quite a snore but getting there. His hair was a mess, and he looked stupidly beautiful. Jared watched him for a minute. He wanted to kiss the fuck out of him and didn't care what he might have been saying last night. Jared smiled and looked back at the ceiling. 

Now he was feeling better, and the shock had warn off a bit, he figured there was no actual harm done. It wasn't like Peter wasn't _meant_ to enjoy it when Jared sucked him, so what if he thought about him sometimes? He thought Jared was the best he'd ever had - better than Trish Anderson even - and Jared could live with that. So what if Peter had told people? And let them think he was a whore and talk about buying him and- He groaned and decided not to think about that ever. 

He rolled over towards Peter, who moved easily in his sleep to let Jared curl up against him. 

"Hey," Peter said, his eyes blinking open as he pulled Jared close. "Sorry, some of the guys crashed in my room."

"S'okay. Go back to sleep," Jared told him, and Peter did. Jared closed his eyes, rested against Peter's chest, and did the same. 

****

**\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -**

  
Next time he woke up Peter was putting tea and toast by his bed. The tea stank, it was some godawful concoction of Colleen's, parsley and wild grass and volcanic dust or something. Worst thing about it was that it genuinely helped after a bad migraine, and Peter knew it.

"Thanks."

"Sure. How's your head?" 

"Better. How's yours?"

Peter smiled. "Not so bad. Stuart, Max and Fraz are still here, they're heading off after lunch, so you can hide in here if you want to til then."

Jared shook his head. "I'm okay, I'll grab a shower and then come have lunch."

He dutifully drank his tea, then did just that. 

Frazer was kicking Stuart's ass at Ultimate Cage Fight Master when he came out, so he sat with them and happily cheered for Frazer because Stuart thought Jared was a whore just for getting on his knees. And it wasn't like that bothered him, because he'd heard Stuart say it about girls a million times before and it had never bothered him, and what the fuck did he care what Stuart thought? But still. He cheered for Fraz.

They moved to the kitchen for lunch.

"Man, you missed a great night last night," Max said, as Peter served up bacon sandwiches and coffee. 

"Yeah?" 

There was a general agreement that their hangovers had been well earned.

"We should get together more often," Peter said, quietly taking Jared's cup of coffee for himself. He substituted it with another horrible mixture of tea which Jared picked up, frowned at, and put back down.

"Course we missed you, buddy," Fraz said, "But Peter filled in for you."

Jared raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"We were listing everyone's top best kiss, blow job, and fuck. But because you weren't here, Peter helpfully filled in the highlights of your sexual history for us."

Jared tried not to dwell on how much Peter had been doing exactly that, and instead just grinned. 

"It's good to know you had such an intellectually stimulating night. We've grown up so much since college. I'm proud of us."

"Yeah, but come on, let's see if he got you right."

"Okay," Jared was genuinely pleased they hadn't grown up at all since college. Max was a doctor, Stuart was a tax attorney, and Fraz was a pilot, but if they wanted to sit around at lunchtime, mostly sober, and discuss the best sex of Jared's life, he was okay with that. "Kiss is Mandy Milton, top of the big wheel, at graduation."

"Mandy with the union jack underwear?" asked Fraz.

"That's her, god bless the queen," Jared said, in his best Infeld voice. "Blowjob was..." he pretended to think, "Chrissy Latham, she was one of our first clients, and mighty grateful that we were more competent than we looked."

"He's two for two," Stu said, and Peter grinned, pretty sure he was going to get the hat-trick. Jared thought about it and decided he'd let him.

"And best fuck ever was the beautiful Miss Lacey Dalton, 2004, on that very couch."

The guys cheered and Peter held out his fist and Jared fist-bumped him happily. 

"Okay," Max said, "Now you do him."

"What?" Jared was confused until he saw Peter's face, his mouth gaping open, trying to find words to say no.

"Tell us Peter's top three, see if you know him as well as he does you."

"Come on dudes, you don't want to hear all that again," Peter said, "You should probably be going anyhow, didn't you say Elsie wanted you home as soon as possible today, don't want you to get in trouble."

"No, it's okay, I can do it," Jared said.

Peter looked at him, desperately trying to tell him no, but Jared feigned confusion. He was going to tell Peter what he'd heard some time, so he saw no down side to letting it fluster him a bit in front of their friends. 

"Okay, Peter's best blow job." He flicked his eyes to Peter, who clearly didn't know what to do with himself, he was turning away, planning to run and hide by the looks of it. "Outside of a Springsteen gig, back seat of his car."

Peter stopped, stock still, and Jared wondered if he'd given him a heart attack, because that hadn't been his plan at all. Embarrassment and confusion, but not cardiac arrest.

"That's one," Stuart said, and Jared waited tensely for him to say one single thing to besmirch Jeri's virtue, but Stuart didn't. 

Peter half turned back, caught Jared's eye. Jared told him it was okay with a smile. Shrugged to say he'd explain later. He saw Peter relax, breathe.

"Okay, best kiss," Jared thought about it for maybe two seconds. "1998, 4th of July, Eric's mom's maid."

Peter looked at him sharply, his eyes narrowed. He shook his head very slightly, before the others made various noises of failure. He was scared again, and Jared realized he was disappointed because Jared had said it was okay, but somehow it wasn't. 

"Nope, Eric's mom's maid has to take second place. Peter was hit with the nostalgia stick," Fraz said, "Chose his first kiss, at sweet fourteen, in the rain, back of some pizza place?"

Peter looked away but Jared kept staring, even though he should probably be saying something, because that wasn't Peter's first kiss - he'd been going out with Stacey Jones for weeks before - but it was _their_ first kiss, and suddenly Jared could see him again, fourteen and suddenly stupidly tall, and grinning at him in the rain.

"I... did not know that," Jared said, eventually, pulling himself together. 

"Come on, see if you can make it two of three," Fraz said.

"No, he lost, right?" Peter clenched his jaw, started piling dishes in the sink.

Jared wanted to let him off, wanted to stop, but there wasn't a chance of him stopping. Best fuck, and Peter was still avoiding it, which meant it probably wasn't Carrie Santana from Vegas. 

The others shot Peter down, demanded Jared answer, and Jared tried to think. Their best fuck was easy, it was the night they'd moved in together, the old place, just the two of them, but he didn't know how Peter would have told them. It was the first time they'd done it somewhere with no chance of being found, allowed to take their time, make as much noise as they wanted. They'd done it on the kitchen counter, table, and floor. Covered in thick cream and strawberry sauce. Then against the wall in the hall, on their way to the shower. Then later, when they were clean again, more quietly on the floor in front of the couch. Quiet until Peter had kicked out with his leg and brought the whole bookcase down on them.

"Best fuck would be," he picked something at random, not caring about being right. "A work retreat we had to go on a few months back, to the great outdoors. Peter disappeared into the woods with, uh, one of the girls from accounts I don't know her name, they did it on a blanket under the stars." In the freezing cold with only insect repellent as lube, he didn't add, which fucking stung. 

Jared knew he'd got it wrong, there were shakes of heads, but he didn't care because Peter turned back to him, and stared at him confused. Eventually he half smiled because Jared was just grinning at him, not letting this be a big deal. 

"He's lying to you," Jared said, "That was the best fuck he's ever had, he was out of it for days after that."

He said it with a slight wink, was rewarded by a slight blush, then he tore his eyes away from Peter before it got too awkward.

"Who'd he choose?"

"Don't remember, what was her name again?" Stuart asked. 

"Jade," Peter said, still looking right at Jared.

"That's it, Jade," Fraz said, all too appreciatively for Jared's liking, made him wonder what Peter had told them about her. Him. "She was a hooker."

Jared's eyebrows shot up.

"She wasn't a hooker," Peter said, as Jared met his eyes. "She wasn't a hooker, I didn't say that."

"Yeah, sure, she was just a girl who works on a boat, who takes single guys out on day trips and fucks them senseless."

"Called Jade," Stuart added, as though that sealed her reputation. "They lost the engine and spent the night adrift somewhere in the pacific. We should all be so lucky."

Jared shook his head, and smiled to tell Peter it was okay that their friends thought he was a whore twice over. And yeah, the boat trip made sense. Although... he looked up, but Peter was avoiding eye contact again, busying round, and everyone else had finished lunch, they were starting to gather their things, making ready to leave. 

Janie had broken up with Peter a few weeks before, and Jared had talked him into a boat trip. It was meant to be an afternoon of fishing and beer and good times, but when they got there it was all set out, five course meal for two, oysters, champagne, candles lit, soft music when they turned on the stereo. Some mix up in booking that made Jared want to die, because they hadn't touched since Janie, and it looked like a set up, he knew it did, he looked desperate and he hadn't meant to push. But it had all worked out, had been sort of gentle and intense all at once, a massive release for both of them. And afterwards they'd barely let go of each other the entire evening. When it was time to go home the engine had failed. They'd put off radioing for help until the next day, gone back to bed and drifted all night, knowing it was dangerous but not caring, it was nice, like the rest of the world didn't exist. It had been one of the best nights of Jared's life, no doubt about that, but somehow he hadn't thought Peter would pick it. 

Jared let goodbyes wash over him, smiled in the right places, hugged everyone, even Stuart, and waved. 

****

**\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -**

  
Peter went back into the house without a word, and Jared followed him. He got in just in time to see Peter closing his bedroom door behind him, and frowned, confused. He went straight after him, saw him pick up his keys from the dresser.

"Dude, where are you going?"

Peter put his keys back down, like he hadn't even known what he was doing. "Nowhere. I don't... Sorry." He looked at Jared like he wanted to die. "Are you..?"

"What?"

"How pissed are you?"

Peter was looking into him, trying to work it out for himself. Jared walked past him, touched him softly on the chest as he did. "You can relax. No harm done." 

He sat, cross-legged on the bed, and Peter just kept looking at him. 

"Hey, I was freaked for a minute, but they didn't know it was me, so it's cool. And I didn't mean to ambush you, I thought the Springsteen thing was the big secret, didn't know there was... other stuff."

"Yeah, sorry. I don't usually..." 

"Good to know." Jared grinned, and Peter looked a lot calmer, a smile that reached his eyes. 

"You're really okay about this?" Peter came and sat next to him, really close, and put his hand casually on Jared's knee. "Because when girls know you told your friends about them, they're usually... not so okay."

Jared grinned, he knew that was true. "Although you seem to have some confusion about it, I'm not a girl. And you didn't tell them it was me."

Peter bumped him with his shoulder. "You're the best."

"Yep." Jared thought that was fair comment. "You really don't do it usually?" 

Peter shook his head. 

"So why this time?"

"I don't know. You weren't there." That wasn't any sort of explanation, Jared waited for him to do better. "I don't get to tell people about you."

Jared had no idea why he wanted to tell people about him, about his _mouth_ , but Peter said it as if it was simple, and Jared decided he'd let it go because Peter's hand was warm on his thigh, stroking gently. 

"Okay."

"How'd you know about Springsteen?" Peter asked.

"I heard you when I was getting a glass of water."

"Oh."

"It's okay, you were most complimentary." He smiled, and Peter smiled back. Jared stroked Peter's arm, and forced himself to pout just slightly. "Except you let Stuart think I'm a slut."

Peter shook his head, but he was looking at Jared's mouth, his eyes twinkling. 

"He doesn't think _you're_ a slut."

"Okay, so you let him think 'Jeri' was a slut." Jared swallowed, and licked his lip, because Peter was still looking at his mouth and Jared was finding it just slightly hard to breathe. He dropped his voice. "Do you think I'm a slut, Peter?"

Peter caught his breath, he stroked Jared's hair behind his ear and Jared leaned into his touch. 

"No," Peter said, still looking at Jared's mouth.

"Good." Jared leaned forward and kissed Peter long and slow, bit his lip gently. "Because you couldn't keep your hands to yourself at that concert, you were way sluttier than I was."

Peter nodded his agreement and kissed Jared back. It was a good kiss, very good, and Peter gently lowered him down onto the bed as he did it, very smooth. He pressed next to him and kissed him harder, his hand stroking up under Jared's top, nails scratching over Jared's skin. 

"Kneeling isn't slutty," Jared said, refusing to be entirely distracted from his train of thought. 

"No," Peter agreed, kissing Jared's ear. "It's just practical," he murmured, sucking gently at soft skin, kissing and nibbling his way down Jared's throat. 

Jared nodded thoughtfully, breathing hard. Kneeling was very practical. When your sole aim was to get as much of Peter's cock in your mouth as humanly possible as quickly as possible, it was simply the best option available. Nothing slutty about that. 

Peter had stopped kissing him, was just looking at him.

"You're not really bothered by it, are you? It was just Stuart."

Jared smiled and shook his head, because he wanted Peter to kiss him some more. Peter was okay with that, put his mouth back to work, one of his hands still under Jared's t-shirt, trailing patterns on his skin. Then he tugged Jared's t-shirt down, licked along his collar bone, kissed the hollow of his throat.

Jared definitely had no intention of saying anything, but he heard it anyway.

"Do you pretend I'm a girl?" 

"What? No, what?" Peter pulled back from him, looked genuinely confused.

"You were just pretty easy with your pronouns out there." Jared thought about it. "I guess it doesn't matter if sometimes you're imagining it's Jeri or Jade or whatever."

Peter half laughed. "No, I don't pretend you're a girl." He stroked his hand down over Jared's chest, his rib cage. "I like you just the way you are."

Jared smiled, that was good. 

"You know if you keep up with that, with 'Jeri' and 'Jade', people are going to figure it out, right?"

Peter shook his head. "People just think I'm talking about Janie."

Ah. Yeah. That made sense. 

Jared didn't know what happened on his face, but he felt himself tense without meaning to. He saw Peter look at him strangely, then he shook his head, and wrapped his arm tight around Jared's waist, hard and strong. He kissed Jared, kissed him brilliantly, and didn't stop, stroked his other hand into Jared's hair, tilted his head back a little, holding him steady. And he kissed him, soft and warm and hard and perfectly, until Jared was smiling again, until he was moaning softly against Peter's lips. Jared didn't know exactly what the kiss meant, but he didn't care because it was definitely good. 

After a while Jared hooked his leg over Peter's, used it to press them together. Peter was in jeans, but Jared had just pulled on sweat pants this morning, nothing underneath, and his dick knew what it meant when Peter was near, when he was kissing him like that, and it needed touch. He rubbed against Peter's thigh, moaned into his mouth.

Eventually Peter pushed him away, which was terrible, but only to pull Jared's t-shirt off, which was good. He lifted his arms obediently.

But Jared's brain took the two second pause to catch up with something that had been bothering him.

"What do you mean people think you mean Janie? You said you didn't tell people about us."

Peter pulled off his own tee and threw it to the floor with Jared's. 

"Just sometimes," he said, his hand exploring Jared's tummy, his chest, casually stroking his fingers back and forth over Jared's nipple. "I told Damien about that time with ice cream last summer, and stumbled over the name. You've seen how weirdly he looks at her now?"

Jared smiled, had indeed seen Damien tongue tied around Janie a few times recently. 

Then he smiled more, Peter had made him lie still, slowly dripped ice cream all over him, down his chest, over his thighs, pressing him down every time he moved, every time he wriggled because it was too much. _"You've been whining all day about being too hot, you should be thanking me."_ Sometimes Peter had licked him clean, the heat of his tongue after the cold of the icecream nearly unbearable. Sometimes he'd just let it melt, let it drip down over Jared's skin. Sometimes he caught it up with his fingers, let Jared suck them clean, always telling him how he was going to leave, wouldn't fuck him if Jared wasn't good, if he didn't stay still, stop squirming, say please... 

Peter nudged Jared out of his memories, and onto his back. Stroked his hands down, over Jared's sides, over his hips, pushing his pants down, out of the way. He smiled as Jared's dick bobbed up, happy to be free. Peter stroked it fondly, kissed Jared with half a laugh.

"You do know it's a generally accepted rule that you don't laugh at other people's penises, yeah?" 

He kissed Peter's shoulder, and kicked his pants off. He pressed up, into Peter's hand, hoping to encourage more stroking, less distracted smiling.

"Sorry," Peter said. "Half an hour ago I was planning to move to Europe and never see you again. This is better."

"Which is why you should always let me make the plans."

"If I let you make the plans we would be garbage men right now."

"They have really cool trucks, Peter. The beeping, and the lights, and nothing to do but drive around all day, it's a good life. And we weren't just going to be garbage men, we were going to be private detective garbage men."

Peter smiled, admitted with his eyes that it had been more of a plan than he gave it credit for. He wrapped his fingers around Jared's cock, none too gentle, and kissed him at the same time. Jared grinned and didn't mind that they weren't garbage men. 

"We can move to Europe if you want to," he said, absently, as Peter pulled at him, stroked him. He ran his hands appreciatively over Peter's skin, then down to his waistband, started unbuckling Peter's belt.

Peter shook his head, he didn't want to move to Europe, and Jared shrugged, fine by him. 

He popped Peter's buttons one by one, loving the feel of Peter pressing against his fingers behind them, already hard. Except then he was distracted again, his brain working despite himself. He left his hand there, thumb pressing into the final button, Peter's cock warm, hot through the boxers against his fingers, he bit his lip.

"So it's not always... you don't always tell people the same thing?"

"Jared." Peter's voice was kind of pleading and it took Jared a second to work out. 

He pulled his hand away, "Sorry."

"No," Peter tried to pull him back, clearly hadn't wanted less touching, he'd wanted less stopping. But he sighed and accepted it. "What are you talking about?"

"You told Damien about the ice cream, so you don't... You know, it's not always the same three. It doesn't matter." It mattered a little bit. "Were they just random or..?" 

"Oh," Peter still looked frustrated at Jared wanting to talk rather than touch, but he went with it. "Dude, Damien didn't ask me what my top best fuck ever was, he asked me if I wanted an ice cream."

Jared laughed, he loved how much Peter enjoyed tormenting Damien with sex stories at work. That made total sense. 

But also it wasn't an answer to the important part.

"So they were, out of us, they were your top best ones? I mean just with me?" 

Peter was quiet, until Jared looked up at him, and he was looking down at him, but Jared didn't know what he was thinking, couldn't read it at all. "Well, yeah," but his voice was quiet and meant no.

Jared waited, asking what he meant. 

"Not just with you," Peter said, and Jared wriggled, smiled helplessly.

"Oh." He stroked the soft hair at the nape of Peter's neck, then leaned in, hiding his face in Peter's throat and kissed him there. "Okay."

"Okay," Peter agreed, and kissed his hair. They breathed for a while, letting that settle. "You liked the woods better?" 

Jared had to think for a second, remembered that he'd guessed their work retreat thing. "No, that was cold and hurt, having sex outside sucks. Best fuck ever was the night we got our first place."

That earned him another kiss, to his forehead this time, and he smiled, glad Peter liked that.

"But on the boat," he said, because he couldn't stop himself. Then he did stop himself, because he didn't really know what he meant, and Peter was not making this easy, Peter was supposed to know what he meant without him having to use actual words. "I didn't think your favorite would be, you know, _taking_ rather than giving."

Peter went quiet again and then gently pushed Jared away a bit, so he could see him. He was frowning, but baffled more than anything else.

"Seriously, that's what you're bothered about? We've been doing this for fifteen years or something and you didn't notice that I like getting fucked?"

Jared laughed, "Yeah, I noticed, I totally noticed. I just didn't think... I don't know." He liked it, that was all, liked that Peter liked that, that he didn't mind liking it, Jared didn't know what he was thinking, decided to stop judging Peter for not getting it either.

"I can't believe you're freaked out that I like it when you fuck me, and you're not even mentioning that you were my first kiss and I never told you."

Jared stared at him.

"What?" Peter asked. "You and me, behind Paulo's, in the rain, remember?"

"Your first kiss was Linda Thomas, you were 11."

"Okay yeah, first proper kiss, though."

"Stacey Jones."

Peter shook his head. "No tongues."

Jared looked at him, and the way Peter very almost looked away told Jared it was true. He pulled Peter tight to him and kissed him again, didn't know what else to do. 

"Fuck. How the hell did you never tell me that?" Peter's fingers were in Jared's hair, Jared turned his head, and kissed Peter's wrist, licked him, kissed him again.

"I was fourteen, I was too embarrassed to kiss her, and too embarrassed to tell you I was embarrassed."

"But you weren't embarrassed to kiss me?"

"I was desperate to kiss you."

Jared grinned, kissed him again for that. 

"Should I be worried that you don't think I've improved in over twenty years?"

Peter smiled against Jared's lips, shook his head. "You have to admit it was pretty epic for a first kiss, and I'd been thinking about kissing you forever. You tasted of cigarettes and bubble gum. You were so fucking hot."

It had been the first year they'd been sent to different schools and they'd spent every second they could together in evenings and weekends. Jared had felt it as an actual ache, a physical thing inside him when he didn't see Peter for more than a day, and he'd worried about what that meant, what people would say if they found out. 

Peter was still at their old school, and eventually he told Jared the things his other friends were saying, mocking him, teasing him for missing Jared, asking if he was missing his boyfriend. Jared had been mortified but Peter had said he didn't care what they thought, of course he missed him. _"And so what even if we were gay? I don't want to be like them anyway, I want to be like us, you know?"_

They were fourteen and Jared had grown his hair and started smoking because he fucking hated Hightower and didn't want to be like anyone there, but he hadn't gone as far as working out what he did want. Peter made it seem so simple: they could just be them, Peter and Jared. And Peter didn't care if they were gay or not, the idea that it didn't even matter was like lightning. 

The kiss came months later. It was raining and they didn't want to go home and they couldn't afford the movies, so they'd squeezed into an empty doorway, sheltered from the rain. Jared had stood a bit closer than he needed to, and Peter had smiled at him just the right way, and Jared had told him how his dad was making them go away for the weekend, so he wouldn't see him until Monday night, and Peter had said how much that sucked, and then his hand was in Jared's hair, and they'd kissed. A bit rushed at first, and awkward, but now Jared thought about it, yeah really not bad for two guys with not a lot of experience on their side.

Jared kissed Peter's gently again, licked softly over his lip. 

"You want me to take up smoking again?" Jared asked. If Peter liked bubblegum and cigarettes then that was something he could deliver. 

Peter smiled a no with a small shake of his head. 

"Okay," Jared stroked Peter's hair. "You can stop being nice to me now, and just fuck me," he said quietly.

Peter flashed him a grin, started pushing down his jeans and boxers without a second's pause, making Jared laugh.

He kicked them off and got his hands back on Jared, pulling him closer, rolling them so he was slightly on top, kissing Jared hard into the mattress. And Jared surrendered completely, gave his mouth up to Peter's tongue, moved with Peter's hands, pressed into his every touch. Then Peter's hand was on his dick, and Jared moaned yes, stroked Peter's arm, kissed him wherever he could reach. He rolled them to the side again and kissed Peter's throat, his tongue lapping over hot skin, hands stroking down Peter's sides, his back, all the curves and flats of Peter's body that he knew better than his own. 

Peter lined their cocks up, and started stroking them both together, practiced movements, so fucking good. 

"Wanted to fuck you all day," he moaned, and Jared felt it like a burning in his stomach. He bent down, licked over Peter's nipple, bit it and tugged until Peter hissed perfectly. Jared pressed kisses deep into Peter's skin, right into his middle, moaning and writhing with Peter's hand still stroking him, stroking them both, and he rocked with the movement.

"You know if Stuart had ever," Jared moaned deep as Peter's palm twisted over the head of his dick, gripped Peter's shoulder, "if he'd ever had your hand on his dick..."

Peter frowned. "Ew."

"Yeh," Jared conceded that sex with Stuart was unappealing. "But if he had, it'd be you he wanted to," Jared paused again to kiss Peter, sighing into his mouth, "Oh god, Peter," sucking his lip, "It'd be you he'd think was, you know," he stroked Peter's hip appreciatively, "saleable."

Peter's hand stopped moving and he leaned back. "Dude, did you just call me a whore?"

Jared met his eyes, and smiled innocently. "I didn't say you _were_ a whore. I just said that you totally have marketable skills if you ever need to make a career move."

Peter half laughed, then narrowed his eyes, and tickled Jared's sides hard and quick, making Jared squirm away from him with a shriek that he wasn't particularly proud of. He didn't stop until Jared kicked him, flailing hopelessly as he tried to push Peter's hands away. Peter looked down at him, smiling hard, but making it obvious he was ready to attack him again if he said the wrong thing. 

"Sorry, sorry," Jared said, laughing and trying to breathe. He started stroking apologies over Peter's skin, then licking him, kissing him, encouraging him to go back to where he'd been. But Peter moved his hand to cup Jared's jaw, his thumb running over Jared's lip. Jared obligingly took it into his mouth, nipped gently at the skin, then sucked gently.

"You know, if we do sell my hands, we're selling your mouth too," Peter said, his voice low and deep and so hot. "We'll make a fucking fortune."

"Sure thing, buddy. Franklin and Bash," Jared tongued over Peter's thumb, "We do all our best work together."

"Yeah, we do." 

Peter still didn't put his hand back on Jared's dick. He moved on top of him again instead, his thigh pressing down hard between Jared's legs. Jared could work with that, he rubbed up against Peter shamelessly and Peter rocked, hard against Jared's hip.

Peter kissed him again, and Jared whined gently, the familiar feeling growing inside, warmth and love and want building all the way through him. He wriggled until he could get both his arms over Peter's shoulders, looped behind Peter's head, because that was what he'd done the first time. He'd needed to then, to help lift himself to Peter's mouth, and it had made him feel like a cheerleader kissing her quarterback boyfriend. It still did, and he liked thinking of Peter like that. 

The kiss grew softer, they were both smiling, still rocking against each other, Jared knew they could come just like this if they wanted to, quick and quiet and warm. Peter moved to kiss his shoulder, bit him lightly, then sucked, and Jared arched up against him. He could lose himself now, so easily, but he didn't want it to be over, he fought to pull himself away from Peter just a little. He nudged gently at him until he looked up, then kissed his cheekbone and whispered against his skin. 

"Let me suck you."

That's what he wanted, had wanted Peter in his mouth again ever since he'd heard him calling him hot, and perfect and fucking _beautiful_. And he knew 'let me' would make Peter moan. 

It did, and his dick throbbed against Jared's thigh. He kissed Jared's temple, pressing hard into him, and he mumbled something about yes, anything Jared wanted, and yes, licking him.

Jared grinned, pushed Peter off him. He started at Peter's chest, kissed him there, licked him, and worked his way down. 

Peter's cock was lying against his stomach, thick and beautiful. Peter was holding it, probably hadn't even realized he was, but Jared batted him away with a frown, this was his now. He was leaking already, and that was fine by Jared, he leaned in, swiped his tongue across the head, being unfairly gentle. He sighed at the taste of precome. It wasn't that he liked it exactly, but it wasn't bad, and it was Peter, it just tasted like sex with Peter, and Jared was a big fan of sex with Peter. He stroked up Peter's thigh, and then trailed his fingers, ridiculously lightly, over Peter's cock, blew cool air over the head.

Peter groaned, and called him a fucking tease, but really quietly so Jared wouldn't actually get pissed, wouldn't actually stop. 

Jared liked making him desperate, he stroked again, and Peter shoved forward with his hips, he started whispering nicer things, like please and god. Jared grinned. Then he swallowed Peter's cock into his mouth without any warning, as much as he could take all at once, sucked hard for just a second, burying his face in Peter's stomach. And Peter jerked underneath him, made the best, garbled noise, and Jared let him out of his mouth with a pop. He swirled his tongue around the head, then did it again, sucked him very hard very quickly, and released him. Loved the way it made Peter move.

They were lying next to each other on the bed, Peter angled towards him, his thighs spread perfectly. Jared moved a little lower, licked gently over Peter's balls, more because he liked it than because Peter did. He kissed his thighs too, just because they were beautiful and because his mouth wanted everything, every bit of Peter it could reach. Then he licked and sucked the very base of his cock, and worked his way up the shaft. 

Peter's hands were in his hair now, he liked Jared's hair under his fingers, Jared thought, and the memory of Peter talking about him like that was so fucking good, Jared sucked harder, his nails digging into Peter's hip. He licked the head clean again, then Peter's stomach where some of the precome had leaked. 

Peter was pulling at Jared's hair just a little, urging him down just a bit, clearly struggling to understand why Jared wouldn't just suck now, when he was right there, so close. Jared let himself be pushed politely into place, and took Peter back into his mouth. He wrapped his hand around the base, squeezed him hard, and he sucked even harder, working his tongue along the underside, moving lower, taking him deeper, right to the back of his mouth where all he could do was suck, and swallow. He stayed there, Peter's fingers gripping his hair so tight, wanting him there so much, Peter moaning low, his hips shifting and twitching, even though Jared knew he was fighting to stay still. 

Jared started moving, pulling up so that he could lick and suck right around the head, then deeper again, letting Peter feel like he was fucking into his mouth each time, Jared's hand around Peter's cock actually controlling the movement, squeezing hard, his thumb rubbing circles, only sometimes flicking over that spot right there which made Peter shudder, made his hips press forwards like clockwork. 

Moving up and down on Peter, Jared rubbed against the sheets, and Jared should stop that, should very definitely not be giving his own dick any attention right now. Peter was always so _smug_ when Jared came just from having him in his mouth. Maybe smug wasn't fair, it just made him happy, but that didn't make it okay. Jared made an effort to limit how often it happened and he was pretty sure it had happened last time, so this was definitely not okay, even though Peter's cock was so hot, filling him, so deep in his mouth, pulsing against his fucking tongue, and he tasted so good, he even fucking smelt good, and Jared moved up again, grinding his own hips into the sheets, moaning around Peter's cock, knew how that felt for Peter, heard him moaning too in response. 

Jared wasn't going to fucking come against the fucking sheets, he was going to let Peter come, and then Peter would touch him, or maybe suck him off too, his mouth willing and warm, and Jared knew that would only take a second, imagined Peter's lips around him, and fuck, he pressed into the sheets again, moaning with pleasure. As he did Peter pushed himself deeper into Jared's mouth, was mumbling fuck, sorry, but Jared didn't mind, wanted him there. His fingers in Jared's hair were pulling, begging, and Jared moaned and pressed hard against Peter, took him deeper. 

He swallowed him, into his throat, swallowed and swallowed, ignored his body ordering him to breathe, telling him he was choking, Peter's fingers were gripping his hair so tight, but Jared barely felt it, could hear Peter moaning, desperate and loud. 

He did almost choke as he pulled Peter out again, he panted pathetically around his cock for a couple of seconds until he could start sucking properly again. Peter was nearly there, so nearly there, his thighs were trembling under Jared's hand, and he was barely breathing, and he would come in Jared's throat and Jared would swallow him and suck him, and work every drop out of him, exhaust him, and then he'd come on Peter's stomach maybe, his chest. And it was such a stupid, cliché thing to get hot over, but Jared felt the heat building all the same, and he pressed into the sheets and gave into it, sucking, as best he could, as his whole body pulsed. He lost his breath and fell apart. He was shaking, and he almost choked again, he pulled up a little, and started to move away, not even thinking, but Peter's hand kept him there. Softly, no real pressure, and Jared could get away easily if he wanted to, but Peter was moaning please and fuck and even now giving Peter everything he wanted made Jared even harder, made his hips press deeper into the mattress, his cock trapped under his stomach. He started sucking again, not as deep, definitely not as controlled, but he did it, lasted long enough to hear Peter tell him good, yes, oh god Jared so fucking good, and then Peter was moving back and forward, tiny movements really, but it felt bigger in Jared's mouth, fucking him, and Jared lost it. Forgot to suck, forgot to breathe. Just moaned and panted helplessly around Peter's cock while he came, his whole body pulsing, lost to everything except the heat in his balls, in his dick, and Peter's hand still holding his hair, keeping him in place, right where Peter wanted him.

When he tuned back in to the rest of the world Peter was talking again, so fucking good Jared, I'm going to, I can't... 

Jared caught his breath quickly, and pulled himself together. He moaned, exhausted, but closed his mouth around Peter and sucked, softly at first, his muscles ached, Peter seemed even fucking bigger than before, and he was thrusting now, still gently, as gently as he could, and Jared started to move with him, taking him deeper, sucking harder. Then he hollowed his cheeks and buried his face against Peter, stopped breathing, gave everything over to taking him deep, sucking him hard, and Peter was coming in seconds, spurting hot at the back of Jared's mouth, his hand still gripping Jared's hair, holding him tight against him this time, his hips pressed forward, no input from his brain, and Jared just moved with him as much as he could, took him, sucked him and swallowed as he came, loved that taste too, loved the noise Peter made, the way he moved, loved everything. 

A few seconds and Peter's hand fell away from his hair, his hips still twitching forwards, his whole body convulsing as he came down. Jared gulped for air, took a second for himself, then sucked again, gentler, but still making Peter whine with pleasure. He licked and sucked more lazily, breathing hard around Peter's cock, until he'd got every drop, until Peter's breathing came back, ragged and exhausted, just the way Jared liked him.

Jared grinned, he stroked Peter's dick as he took it out of his mouth, stroked his thigh too. He kissed Peter's stomach, and his hip, and then rolled away. Peter went the other way, and they sprawled on the bed, quiet and spent. 

Jared breathed. He stretched, arching his back, felt good. He frowned for half a second because he'd come against the sheets. But he pretty much always did when Peter was in his mouth. And that was okay, at least they were Peter's sheets and not his.

He smiled as he felt Peter reach out and stroke his hair again. He reached out too, brushed his hand against Peter's leg and let it rest there. They both lay quietly for a few minutes more. Jared closed his eyes and thought maybe he'd just sleep for just a while.

"Jared?"

"Hm?"

"I meant everything I told them about your mouth, your mouth is excellent."

Jared was already smiling, but he smiled even more.

"And only a little bit slutty," Peter added.

Jared laughed, but shoved at him in pretend protest all the same. Peter caught his hand and pulled, urging him up the bed. "Come here."

Jared went happily, and settled into the pillows. Peter kissed him lazily, asked him if he was okay and he nodded. Peter was smiling too, sleepy, his lips were dark and his hair was ruffled. Fucking gorgeous, and Jared could look at him like that forever, except for how he could barely keep his eyes open. 

"Were we supposed to do anything today?" Peter asked.

Jared shook his head. "Not one thing."

"Good." Peter kissed him again. 

They were still on top of the cover, but Peter pulled it from behind Jared, to wrap over him, and it more or less covered them both. Peter lay back, and Jared fit in against his side, head on Peter's shoulder.

"Are you going to pay me?" Jared asked, already half asleep, his hand stroking Peter's chest.

"What?"

"You let our friends think I'm a whore. You should pay me."

"Hm." Peter didn't open his eyes. "Are you expensive?"

"I don't know. I think maybe mid to high-end?"

"Okay," he said, considering that. "You know if I pay you, you have to do everything I want."

"I already do everything you want."

Jared could hear Peter smile. 

"That's true. That's _why_ our friends think you're a whore."

Jared opened his mouth, then closed it again, smiling too much to argue. "You know, you are a terrible person who doesn't appreciate me." He put his arm over Peter's middle, made himself comfy. "I'm not going to be your friend any more."

Peter stroked his back. "Are you still going to blow me sometimes?"

"Probably."

"Okay then." 

"Okay." 

Jared smiled, pressed a little closer and went to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Bruce Springsteen song 'Happy'.  
> I wrote a longer version of the ice-cream flashback, [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/725110).


End file.
